Our History & Roots
The Elon School traces its history to 1907 when the Elon Orphanage, later re-named Elon Homes and Schools for Children (EHSC), opened its doors to children from the community. The mission was to nurture the child by ensuring a safe and secure living environment, life skills development, and an education. One hundred years after the founding of the EHSC, The Elon School will open its doors to an exceptional group of young people who will comprise the founding classes of Alamance County's first independent college preparatory school. The Elon Homes and Schools for Children Foundation have committed the necessary resources to fund the school and ensure its success.

How The Elon School Evolved
The Board of Directors of Elon Homes and Schools for Children oversees child caring programs in five North Carolina counties. For the past several years the Board has given consideration to future use of the campus in Elon which most recently served an at-risk population of students with academic and/or behavioral challenges. Due to reforms of the national child welfare system, with which EHSC agrees, campus based services in Elon are no longer a valued or funded service. The Board voted in November 2005 to close all services and programs at the Elon campus and to more than double the number of at-risk children served in its other eleven counties of service.

At the same meeting the Board received a report from a committee that had worked for two years studying future potential uses of the Elon campus. Based upon the findings of this committee the EHSC Board also decided to move forward in determining the feasibility of creating an independent, college preparatory, 21st Century day school of the highest standards and quality for grades 9-12 on its 20-acre campus on South O'Kelly Avenue, near Elon University. From a preliminary assessment of the suitability of existing facilities as an independent high school and a financial operations model the Board learned that the campus, with some alterations, could support the proposed Mission of the school. Consultations with individuals and groups within the community confirmed the need and the interest in the proposed school. The Board officially voted in February 2006 to establish The Elon School and to begin operations in 2007.

The rationale for The Elon School is twofold: A significant part of the original mission of EHSC was to ensure the educational needs of children from this area were met. Although the child welfare program will no longer continue on this one campus, the Board feels that a college preparatory school still fits the original mission and will offer an opportunity "to return to our roots and be part of the Elon community. The second reason is that the Elon campus, with its attractive and well-maintained academic buildings and other infrastructure, can already support an outstanding college preparatory program of 240-280 students with minor modifications to existing structures and the addition of a few other program support spaces.